P. D. Ouspensky on Magick and Psychology

"When I began to write A New Model of the Universe in 1907, 1 formulated to myself, as many other people have done before and since, that behind the surface of the life which we know lies something much bigger and more important. And I said to myself then that until we know more about what lies behind, all our knowledge of life and of ourselves is really negligible. I remember one conversation at that time, when I said, 'If it were possible to accept as proven that consciousness (or, as I should call it now, intelligence) can manifest itself apart from the physical body, many other things could be proved. Only it cannot be taken as proved.' I realized that manifestations of supernormal psychology such as thought transference, clairvoyance, the possibility of knowing the future, of looking back into the past, and so on, have not been proved. So I tried to find a method of studying these things, and worked on that line for several years. I found some interesting things in that way, but the results were very elusive; and though several experiments were successful, it was almost impossible to repeat them.

I came to two conclusions in the course of these experiments: first, that we do not know enough about ordinary psychology; We cannot study supernormal psychology, because we do not know normal psychology. Secondly I came to the conclusion that certain real knowledge exists; that there may be schools which know exactly what we want to know, but that for some reason they are hidden and this knowledge is hidden. So I began to look for these schools. I travelled in Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Turkey and the Near East; but it was really later, when I had already finished these travels, that I met in Russia during the war a group of people who were studying a certain system which came originally from Eastern schools. This system began with the study of psychology, exactly as I had realized it must begin.

The chief idea of this system was that we do not use even a small part of our powers and our forces. We have in us, so to speak, a very big and very fine organization, only we do not know how to use it. "

--P.D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way, Chapter 1

Commandments Were Made to Be Broken

The following laws are universal commandments which we must comprehend and accept… for now. Acceptance must be established before trying to overcome these laws on an individual basis. Every prison has rules and these are ours. Know them. A Cultist’s cold, rational study of these laws will lead to circumventing each and every one of them

The first law is the law of suffering. We suffer for many reasons. Chief among them is that our suffering provides energy for the universe. We also suffer in order to distract us from our purpose on this earth. Also, I have little doubt that our suffering amuses whatever sick sense of humor the universe has.